False Picture — Veronica Heley

A widowed amateur sleuth shadows an international art thief from London to Bruges in this “sprightly second cozy” by the author of False Charity



Bea Abbot doesn't do murder. The modest agency she runs from her Victorian home in Kensington is better at finding good domestic help and the best caterers. Yet how can she turn away her oldest friend? Velma's prodigal stepson Philip has vanished. So has a valuable pre-Raphaelite painting from the home of Philip's eccentric godmother, Lady Lucinda Farne. Seeing that Lucinda's been stabbed to death, she can't possibly clear Philip's name. But Bea can. At least that's what Velma hopes.



Now Bea must locate a runaway bad boy, track down a valuable Millais, and solve a deadly crime. Of course, if Philip didn't do it, that means Bea and her wily young undercover assistant will be tangling with someone far more dangerous―a professional well-schooled in the art of murder.